Mike Bland's Location
United States, United States
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About Mike Bland
https://mike-bland.com/DO NOT SEND ME INVITES IF WE HAVE NOT ACTUALLY INTERACTED! If I don't actually/really know you, I won't accept your invite.Software developer turned organizational "Instigator," often driving adoption of sustainable testing and quality practices based on the Test Pyramid strategy.Strong background in UNIX/Linux programming environments and large-scale distributed systems programming. Very active in Google "Grouplets" to achieve widespread development culture, process, and tooling improvements. Led the Quality Culture Initiative at Apple.Specialties: Cross-functional leadership focused on long-term organizational change, coding, automated testing, UNIX/Linux/macOS, distributed systems
Mike Bland's Current Company Details
Mike Bland Work Experience Details
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Developer Experience Platform ArchitectEngflow Mar 2024 - PresentVirginia, United States
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Instigator, Quality Culture InitiativeApple Nov 2018 - Nov 2022Led the Quality Culture Initiative, a volunteer organization creating a chain reaction of sustainable testing and quality practices based on the Test Pyramid.Details: https://mike-bland.com/2022/11/07/leaving-apple.htmlThe QCI garnered these results during my tenure (internal to Apple):Training: ~40 volunteers taught ~360 sessions of our 16 course curriculum. ~6100 check-ins from ~3200 unique attendees.Internal setup and workflow reference: Delivered SWE’s first comprehensive onboarding and workflow reference. Includes code review guidelines, from writing reviewable code to providing a meaningful review.Podcast: Published 45 episodes with 500+ internal subscribers. Drives a broad conversation around software quality. Guests come from various teams and roles to share their thoughts and experiences.Internal Podcasts Server: Built with Python and internal services for Postgres, blob storage, and Kubernetes. Implemented internally recommended security features; hosts several other podcasts as well.Test Certified inspired team roadmap program: Enrolled ~80 teams, with ~20 dedicated volunteers guiding teams through the process. Designed for teams to self-serve at the start—the actual number of teams is higher.Embedded QCI advocates: Launched six groups, with at least six more poised to launch. Decentralizes the QCI—these groups apply our resources to achieving their orgs’ quality goals. This network makes quality work more visible across the company, which enhances the credibility of all participating groups.Sales presentations: We presented to ~50 teams/orgs across the company. Discusses software quality, culture, leadership, and how the QCI encourages them.Virtual conference: Produced ~50 sessions making quality work and its impact visible, from ~60 presenters and panelists, with ~850 registrants. Regularly sent videos as examples and as references.Many dedicated and talented people contributed to all of these achievements, plus more not mentioned. -
Senior Site Reliability ArchitectCvent Sep 2017 - Oct 2018Washington D.C. Metro AreaMy official title was a bit misleading: I've never been an SRE (though I loved working closely with them!) and I didn't architect any software systems.However, I was a member of the SRE team within R&D, recruited to instigate culture change around knowledge sharing and technology adoption—specifically automated testing, of course, but potentially much more than that. I introduced the Grouplets concept, which resulted in ten active Grouplets by the time I left addressing Code Quality, Documentation, Green (environmental sustainability) initiatives, the Hour of Code, Product Management, Security, Tech Hiring, Testing, and Training—the tenth being the Intergrouplet, the Grouplet of Grouplet leads/reps, advancing the Grouplet community as a whole. -
InstigatorMsb Tech Enablement Jan 2017 - Sep 2017Alexandria, VaStarted my own independent contracting practice to help make the right thing the easy thing for an array of different companies.After a great engagement with Schibsted Products & Technology's Eng Prod team in Barcelona, I decided to put my independent work on hold to join Cvent in September 2017.During this time, I really fleshed out my go-script-bash framework (https://github.com/mbland/go-script-bash), developed my Custom Links application (https://github.com/mbland/custom-links), and developed two (effectively three) new talks:- "The Rainbow of Death", my next iteration of the Google Testing Grouplet's story- "Automated Testing—Why Bother?", a new intro-to-automated-testing talk divided into two parts: - "Part One: They Why" illustrates the value of automated testing from several perspectives: potential and realized catastrophes; social and individual psychological insight; and return on investment. - "Part Two: The Bother" is a step-by-step introduction to the fundamentals of automated testing and testable code/system design, from the "white box" unit tests written by developers up to "black box" testing driven by dedicated testers.
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Practice DirectorGsa Nov 2014 - Mar 2016Washington D.C. Metro Area18F (https://18f.gsa.gov/) is a team within the United States General Services Administration dedicated to delivering high-quality software products to federal agencies using Agile-inspired methodologies. We also aim to effect a culture change throughout federal IT development, not just by delivering software and setting a good example, but also through active advocacy of modern development practices and hands-on support for those who wish to adopt them.In my role as Practice Director, I led efforts to develop, document, and package our development practices, services, and training materials to support our team and those at other agencies.I started at 18F in November 2014, after a three-year hiatus from the tech industry, on the basis of my experience driving automated testing adoption throughout Google. My presentation Large Scale Development Culture Change: Google and the US Government attempts to connect the dots between my Google experience and the broader effort to effect culture change throughout federal IT development (https://18f.gsa.gov/2014/12/11/large-scale-development-culture-change/). -
Reactivated Testing EvangelistMsb, Inc. Feb 2014 - Oct 2014Boston, MaWhile still studying at Berklee, the "goto fail" and Heartbleed bugs inspired me to write two articles: "Finding More Than One Worm in the Apple" for ACM Queue (later published in Communications of the ACM) and "Goto Fail, Heartbleed, and Unit Testing Culture" for Martin Fowler's website. After leaving Berklee in June, I was invited to give my "Unit Testing Perspectives" talk to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau development teams. After being recruited for the US General Services Administration's 18F team, I was invited by ThoughtWorks to give a presentation called "Large Scale Culture Change: Google and the US Government". Prior to delivering this talk at the ThoughtWorks NYC office, I also delivered it at the Automated Testing Boston Meetup.
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StudentBerklee College Of Music Jan 2013 - Jun 2014Boston, MaPursued a B.A. degree in Performance with a Theory of Jazz and Popular Song minor. My principal instrument is the electric guitar. No, I do not know what I will do after Berklee or have a specific goal in mind, other than not taking any regrets to the grave. (No big ones, anyway.)Just as I did not foresee playing a large part in changing Google engineering culture and working on websearch when I started my Computer Science degree, I have no idea what lies ahead on this path. But whatever it is, it's right for me, and I aim to be prepared when the opportunity presents itself, just as I was with Google.
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Recovering Software EngineerMsb, Inc. Sep 2011 - Jan 2013Brighton, MaDue to my good phynancial fortune after working at Google, took an extended break from work to consider the next step to take in life. Decided to semi-retire from the tech industry. Took a Great American Road Trip from NYC to Memphis, TN; Kansas City, MO; Boulder, CO; Boise, ID; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Missoula, MT; Rapid City, SD; Cleveland, OH; and a few other stops along the way before returning to NYC. Got the crazy notion to return to Berklee College of Music, which I'd attended for only one day years ago, and found that Berklee has a very liberal returning student policy.Moved to Brighton, and while waiting for the Spring semester to begin, continued deprogramming myself from feeling the guilt, anxiety, and fear of deviating from the standard American narrative that tricks the 99% into believing they barely deserve what they already have in life, and that they'll be on the street and completely ostracized the day after breaking free and pursuing their own dream instead of somebody else's. That, and acquiring and hacking on electric guitar gear, and posting a lot about my past Google exploits in my blog: http://mike-bland.com/
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Senior Software EngineerGoogle Aug 2005 - Sep 2011Greater New York City AreaJan 2009 – Sep 2011: Websearch Infrastructure, Instant Indexing Tier. Highly-distributed, highly-concurrent, multithreaded system which indexes all new content on the World Wide Web within minutes. Designed and implemented systems for removing obsolete content, spam blocking, taking inventory of signals imported from other tiers, and reindexing to take advantage of rapid signal changes. Refactored a core component to achieve greater-than-expected code reuse across indexing systems. Built and deployed binaries; monitored, debugged and resolved operational issues.Aug 2005 – Jan 2009: Testing Evangelist. In mid-2005 Google's code base was largely untested, untestable, and lacking tools to fix this. For 3+ years I helped lead the effort to create a fundamental cultural shift in a rapidly growing organization of thousands of engineers. Today Google is a place where thorough unit testing is the expected cultural norm.• Jun 2007 – Jan 2009: Test Mercenaries. Joined, then managed a team of engineers dedicated to improving design and testing techniques while embedded in other teams for months at a time.• Sep 2005 – Sep 2007: Testing Grouplet. Joined, then led a grassroots, 20%-time volunteer effort to improve testing techniques and tools. Drove Testing on the Toilet (http://googletesting.blogspot.com/search/label/TotT) and Test Certified (testing plan for individual teams). Partnered with tools teams, culminating in the Test Automation Platform, which tests and reports on every change submitted to Google's enormous Perforce depot: http://google-engtools.blogspot.com/2011/06/testing-at-speed-and-scale-of-google.html• Sep 2007 – Nov 2008: Fixit Grouplet. Recruited all of Google engineering for one-day, intensive sprints of code reform and tool adoption. Organized four company-wide Fixits, the last involving 100+ volunteers in 20+ offices in 13 countries. Led the grouplet to document its collective experience.• Aug 2005 – Jun 2007: Testing Technology and Build Tools. -
Software EngineerNorthrop Grumman Mission Systems Jul 2001 - Jun 2005Norfolk, Virginia AreaJan 2004 – Jun 2005: Port Monitoring. Designed and implemented a new radar data module for this US Coast Guard system. Rendered data from multiple radars to multiple X-based clients with different views and radar subscriptions. Far more stable and efficient than the module it replaced.Jul 2001 – Jan 2004: Shipboard Navigation. Reduced the rendering time of nautical data for US Coast Guard and US Navy vessels from 90s to 5s for a standard chart, mainly via a new spatial query engine. Developed algorithms for advanced features. Greatly improved stability and reduced defects.
Mike Bland Skills
Python
Linux
Software Development
C++
Distributed Systems
Testing
Programming
Test Automation
Algorithms
Multithreading
Embedded Systems
Shell Scripting
Process Improvement
Java
Perforce
Mike Bland Education Details
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Computer Science -
Fine Arts/Theatre Concentration
Frequently Asked Questions about Mike Bland
What company does Mike Bland work for?
Mike Bland works for Engflow
What is Mike Bland's role at the current company?
Mike Bland's current role is Instigator.
What is Mike Bland's email address?
Mike Bland's email address is mb****@****ple.com
What is Mike Bland's direct phone number?
Mike Bland's direct phone number is +165038*****
What schools did Mike Bland attend?
Mike Bland attended Christopher Newport University, Christopher Newport University.
What are some of Mike Bland's interests?
Mike Bland has interest in Mac Os X, Guitar, Programming, Python, Spanish Language And Culture, Linux, Unix, Swing Dancing, Music, Movies.
What skills is Mike Bland known for?
Mike Bland has skills like Python, Linux, Software Development, C++, Distributed Systems, Testing, Programming, Test Automation, Algorithms, Multithreading, Embedded Systems, Shell Scripting.
Who are Mike Bland's colleagues?
Mike Bland's colleagues are Kip Hamiltons, Shelby Lee Neubeck, László Csomor, Ulf Adams, Andrés Felipe Barco Santa, Ulf Adams, Andres Felipe Rueda Iglesias.
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Mike Bland
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